Post #2: Observation of team behaviour: intercultural and interpersonal communication

It is agreed upon that teamwork are very necessary in today’s work space and communication is the basis of teamwork. I am going to write more about the relationship between teamwork and communication.

Interpersonal communication is what we need to understand others when working in teams. As the word “interpersonal” implies, it is communication “between people”. Some scholars divide interpersonal communication into direct and indirect channels. Direct channels consist of both verbal and nonverbal information that are obvious and easily recognized by the receiver. In my team, verbal channels are spoken or written words shared between people while nonverbal channels are facial expressions and body movements. Direct communication, which is controlled by IQ (intellectual intelligence) is very important since it provides information and connects teammates. In contract, indirect communication is related to EQ (emotional intelligence) and often received subconsciously. This kind of communication often reveals the true emotions of the sender. Let imagine a friend of you, who is very sociable, comes to a party. She does not say “hi” to anyone and keep silent most of the party. You may have the feeling that she must be sad or reluctant to join the party. To efficiently communicate and to successfully team up with others, we should never ignore indirect communication.

It is natural that we feel comfortable when communicating with people from similar backgrounds (nationality, race, language …). I observe that in some modules, when students are allowed to choose their team, they usually stick to whom of same nationality. It may help them communicate fluently and score better. However, they will lose the opportunity to get use to international communication which is very important in today’s working environment. The modules EG1413 tries to help us over this communication barrier by randomly grouping us. I was lucky to be grouped into a diverse team whose members come from different countries. In order to achieve the team’s common goal, we quite successfully change our styles of communicating into the most suitable one. By doing this, we help people from other cultures understand us better. In addition, I like my group since everyone is friendly and sincere.

In conclusion, interpersonal and international communication are all important for efficient teamwork. Practicing those skills will help us a lot in our careers.

Post #1: Communication and teamwork: why they are important for me?

We are living in a connected world where communication and teamwork play very important roles. I myself can hardly imagine how the world would be without them.

Communication is the way we connect to others. We, the human being, are social creatures and our society is created, maintained and developed by communication. It helps people collect and transfer information, build relationships, entertain and so on. For me, a foreign student, it is the mean to understand and to be understood so every day I learn, work and live with it. In my opinion, communication is not just important, it is survival.

As a computer engineering student, I point out that most of my study and my future job will require team work. Hardly can I complete a project without the help from my teammates. In this world, we need a good team rather than some talented engineers. You may be good at many fields but you cannot good at every field and you also cannot do the job of many people at a time. That is why teamwork is necessary.

Communication skills are needed in teamwork and teamwork, in return, is a good environment for learning and practicing communication skills. When work as a team, I and my teammates have to cooperate with others. Bad communication can lead to waste of time, money, effort and even lead to bad result or failure if it causes misunderstandings. In teamwork, I have to use a lot of communication to express and defense my ideas or understand and criticize others’. It is also helpful when I seek for help from my teammates and when helping them. By teamwoking, I can practice all of the communication skills.

In summary, communication and teamwork are my keys to success and I think the module CG1413 effective team communication can help me a lot by teaching me how to become a good communicator and a good teammate.